Bengal govt to have own newspaper, TV channel

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday announced her government would have its own newspaper and a television channel to "properly highlight" its work.

The newspaper, to be named Dainik Paschimbanga, would use the press of defunct Bengali daily Basumati, once a premier newspaper in the state, Banerjee told reporters here.

The TV channel, to be named Paschimbanga, would be located at Roopkala Kendra, which has infrastructure for production of documentaries on development issues of different government departments. “This (Roopkala Kendra) will be revived for highlighting the performance of various government departments," she said.

The announcement of the government having its own newsapaper and a TV channel followed sharp criticism of the Mamata-led government on various issues by a section of the print and electronic media.

Earlier, speaking at an officers' convention here, she said, “The government work is not being highlighted properly. We need our own news channel and paper to inform the people.”

She added the media was more focused on “negative” news about the government and did not highlight the good work done. She said a booklet on a year’s performance of the government would be released by the state.